Rye Brook arena proposal public hearing to continue Feb. 12

Frank MacEachern

Updated 10:43 pm, Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A contentious four-ice rink arena proposed for Rye Brook, N.Y., will continue to be on the front burner when a public hearing on the proposal continues Feb. 12 after dozens of Greenwich and Rye Brook residents packed a meeting Tuesday to voice their opposition.

"We will keep the public hearing open as long as necessary," Rye Brook Mayor Joan Feinstein said Wednesday. "We are still in a fact-finding mode and right now there is more information needed."

About 80 people, many of them standing because every chair was taken, packed in to the meeting room at the village office for the public hearing Tuesday night.

One of the Greenwich residents in attendance was Robert J. Richardson, a resident of King-Merritt complex in Greenwich. He said residents on both sides of King Street share similar concerns.

"Their interests coincide with our own, and that is to protect the residential areas, the investments we have in our homes and the quality of our neighborhoods," he said Wednesday.

The arena is proposed for an undeveloped area of the Reckson Executive Park at 1100 King St. on the Greenwich town line. Currently there are two office buildings on the site and Reckson has an approval from 2000 to build a third 280,000-square-foot building. Reckson is proposing instead to develop a 140,000-square-foot, four-ice surface arena on that undeveloped section of the property.

The plan has drawn criticism from both Greenwich and Rye Brook residents who argue it will increase traffic on King Street.

Richardson said he suspects Reckson wants to develop the property as an arena because they are having difficulty filling their two current buildings with office tenants.

"This is not the place you put in a regional recreational sports facility in order to generate some marginal income on a real estate development that is struggling," he said.

Eli Williams, president of Stamford-based QMC Group, which will operate the arena complex, said the arena will open for use from 6 a.m. until midnight Monday through Saturday and from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.